Preparing for the Santa Fe Wool Festival September 28 2023

In one week, I’ll be loading our trailer for the MAVWA Wool Festival in Santa Fe, NM. It’s been a difficult month for us, but we’re still excited to bring all our lovely wool products and more to our customers at the festival. We have lots of new colors, products, and variations of our offerings.

My mom, Pam, is having back problems that will prevent her from attending the festival this year. My kids and husband will be helping me run the booth while my mom and dad stay home. Pam will miss seeing you all, but this was the best decision for her health.

Our garden and orchard produced wonderfully this year, and I've also been busy harvesting and putting up a lot of food this month. On top of that and my mom's back problems, my daughter broke her foot. When it rains it pours, eh?

Look at all those apples!

Pear rings and pear leather in the dehydrator.

Abbey enduring the cast and crutches with fairly good spirits.

I’ve been dyeing up a storm this month. It’s always easiest to do most of the dyeing at once, while I have my tables and equipment set up on our back porch. It is such a lovely location to spend time—I get to overlook my garden and backyard orchard, enjoy the flowers, and listen to the birds. Dyeing is hard work, but a nice setting makes it enjoyable.

We have some new Shetland roving, Rambouillet combed top, and Rambouillet fine-weight yarn colorways. It’s always fulfilling to work with our lovely homegrown Shetland roving, and Rambouillet is such wonderful wool to work with—I’m excited to share the results with you. Don’t forget all our wool is grown in Colorado!

We are offering Navajo Churro this year in our discounted 8 oz roving balls, in addition to the Corriedale and Shetland. I also created multi-colored bundles of odds-and-ends roving that are perfect for any fiber artist looking for color options. These bundles contain a variety of roving thicknesses from all the wool we typically just add to our own personal stash—remnants, the thin roving that first comes off the machine, and others. At a price that can’t be beaten, we think our customers are going to love this new offering.

Don’t forget now is the time to purchase gifts for your friends and family. We will be offering numerous quantity discounts at the festival, so make sure you come by to see us!

 - Kelsey

Salida Fiber Festival September 21 2016

We had another great year at the Salida Fiber Festival. It's such a lovely town and we enjoy the trip as a business vacation.

Our littlest helper entertained herself during booth take-down by turning packing tubes into Barbie launchers! It was pretty entertaining for all of us.

We always stop at the top of Wolf Creek Pass to stretch our legs on the trip to and from Salida. Gorgeous scenery up there!

Thanks for reading!

Kelsey

Magazines & Taos October 10 2014 1 Comment

It's been a busy month since the Salida Fiber Festival at the beginning of September.  Our cards were featured in Victoria Magazine's October issue, which came out in mid-September.  We were busy getting ready for the Wool Festival at Taos, and then had amazing interest in the cards and have had to keep making the cards to keep up with orders.  A good problem to have, right?  The Wool Festival at Taos was a spectacular weekend and fiber-enthusiasts came out in huge numbers.  Our locker hooking kits, dyed and natural Corriedale and Navajo Churro roving, sheep earrings, shawl pins, and stitch marker necklaces were extremely popular.  I guess I know what we'll be doing for the next few weeks - making products to restock our inventory!

Isn't that the cutest product photo?  We are honored they wanted to showcase our notecards!

We couldn't have fit more into the trailer for the Wool Festival at Taos!

We were so busy on Saturday, right from the moment we opened, that we hardly had a chance to sit down.  Grandpa Jim watched Abby, Pam demonstrated locker hooking and fielded technical questions, and Trent and I were the cashiers.  On times like this, I'm very glad this is a family effort!

Abby was exhausted by all the excitement and fell asleep in her chair behind the booth.  I wanted a nap, too!

On a sad note, Lucy, our guardian dog, passed away over the weekend. Thank you so much for being a great farm companion and protecting our sheep for over a decade (from predators as well as whirlwinds, thunder, and bunnies). We'll miss you, good girl! Rest in peace.

Thanks to all our customers for your support online and at the wool festivals, and thank YOU for reading!

- Kelsey

A Great Salida Fiber Festival September 12 2014 1 Comment

Many thanks to all the Salida Fiber Festival volunteers, our customers, and our locker hooking students this past weekend!  It was a great festival, with amazing attendance, and even the weather cooperated (it was a bit windy, and some storms threatened but never really rained).  Our Colorado-grown roving was a huge hit, and everyone loved accessorizing their woolen items with our handmade shawl pins.  Looks like we'll be busy this month restocking our inventory for the Wool Festival at Taos!

We packed as much into our 10 x 10 booth as possible.

See all that gorgeous hand-dyed Corriedale roving?  We should have done more; it was almost gone by the end of Saturday!

Vertical displays are the only way to go with all our diverse products.

Pam's class on locker hooking went well.  Between the class and her demo on Sunday, we have many more people "hooked" on locker hooking (sorry, I couldn't help myself with that pun).

Thanks again to everyone - especially our helpers, Jim, Trent, and Abby - and to you for reading!

- Kelsey